


The Quick and the Dead

by tirsynni



Category: Thor (Movies)
Genre: Gen, Injury, Loki's Brilliant Decision Making, Missing Scene, Thor: The Dark World
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-24
Updated: 2018-02-24
Packaged: 2019-03-23 05:36:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,153
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13780827
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tirsynni/pseuds/tirsynni
Summary: In Loki's defense, most monsters went down and stayed down when someone ran them through.





	The Quick and the Dead

Frigga and Odin both warned him this his overconfidence in his own cleverness would be his doom. Loki thought of Frigga laughing as she told him that, cleaning blood off his face. Mouth smiling but eyes oddly sad when she said, “It’s going to get you killed one day, my son.”

Loki thought of Frigga and her laughter as the Kursed turned around, blade jutting out from its chest. Loki swallowed.

In his defense, most monsters went down and stayed down when someone ran them through.

Loki moved back but knew he couldn’t go far, not far enough. The beast reached for him and Loki felt strangely calm when it grabbed him. His cleverness was going to get him killed, Frigga told him, but that was all right. It grabbed him and  _ yanked _ and there was less pain than he expected but there was a shocking pressure, shoving his breath from him in a small gasp. He thought he heard Thor screaming but that was all right, too.

His cleverness was always going to get him killed. Loki knew that now, just like Frigga did, and it was going to take his killer down with him.

One shattered breath and then Loki was thrown away like so much trash. One breath and the bomb was armed.

There was blood in Loki’s mouth. It didn’t stop the hot rush of satisfaction. “See you in Hel, monster,” he spit out, a son’s promise. From one monster to another.

_ Now _ Loki felt the pain but it didn’t matter: he watched the realization in the creature’s eyes, watched the bomb go off, watched the creature get torn apart. The bomb warped the space around them, warped the monster, implosion and explosion both, and Loki’s rage burned and burned until the monster was gone and then it burned itself out.

Then and only then did Loki let his head fall back.

_ I killed him, Mother _ .

Agony flared through him like a star, and Loki heard Thor’s heavy steps and heard his voice and he tried to claw at his own chest but couldn’t move. Couldn’t move until  _ Thor _ moved him, hauling him into his arms.

“No, no, no,” Thor chanted above him and Loki tried to focus on his brother’s face, saw his pain reflected there. His chest  _ burned _ and he had been stabbed before but it never felt like this.

_ You get run through and you stay down even monsters stay down -- _

“-- didn’t listen,” Thor was saying, and Loki wanted to cry.

“I’m a fool,” Loki panted.  _ Too clever _ , they said. “I’m a fool.”  _ Didn’t she warn him? _

Because he was a monster but still loved Frigga, still loved Thor, and he would never see either again. Monsters didn’t go to Valhalla.

“Stay with me,” and there was Thor’s hand on his face, there and gone, enough to make Loki look at him. There was despair in his big brother’s eyes like Loki had never seen. Loki wanted to touch his face back but the heat felt like frost now, sliding through his veins. His fingers and toes felt numb.

“I’m sorry,” Loki panted, had to tell him, saw his death in Thor’s eyes, “I’m sorry,” for being a fool, for being the wrong race, for being too clever and not clever enough.

Thor didn’t look like Loki’s sunshine above him but like a gathering storm, dark cloud building. Thor’s arms were shaking or maybe that was just Loki. The cold crept and crept and crept. 

“I’m sorry,” he repeated, and Thor shushed him. His face looked tight and worn and when had his big brother grown old?

Thor’s mouth moved but he didn’t speak. He looked over Loki and he knew, they both knew, they would never meet again, Loki in Hel and Thor destined for Valhalla, rightful places at last. Loki’s eyes burned. 

At last, Thor found his words. “It’s all right,” he whispered, and he held Loki close but Loki could barely feel his arms anymore. “I’ll tell Father what you did here today.” He nodded firmly, like  _ that _ was something he could fix, like  _ that _ was a gift he could finally give.

For some reason, that settled Loki. His clever tongue finally found the words he wanted. He relaxed into Thor’s grip and let the cold seep through him. His birthright at last. “I didn’t do it for him.”

He let himself drink in the sight of Thor’s face, grieving but there was love there, so fierce, and then let his eyes close. In the far distance, Loki heard Thor scream.

Then there was nothing but the cold.

When Loki awoke again, the cold remained, heavy and agonizing in his limbs, and he knew he was in Hel. Then he opened his eyes and saw the dead world of Svartalfheim and was greatly confused.

“What the…?” Loki blinked and pushed himself on his elbows. Nothing but dead earth and rocks. He blinked again. No change. He looked down at his chest and saw dirt and dried blood. Carefully, he poked it and felt a spark of pain. Nothing else. “I’m...alive?”

Wait. The blood on his front… It hurt when he pushed himself up but it was the pain of moving after a long illness, not the expected pain which came from being run through. He laughed and his chest hurt. Still manageable. “Apparently monsters don’t stay down when run through,” he rasped. 

Alive but how? He scraped at his bloody tunic with a nail. Most of it was dark red -- his -- but there was some black mixed in. He had been stabbed by the same bloody blade impaling the Kursed. Was it that? His own Jotunn blood? A mixture? Neither?

Loki stumbled when he rose to his feet. His head spun. He licked dry lips and tasted copper and dirt. He grimaced. Disgusting.

No sign of Thor or his woman or that bastard Malekith. Loki scowled and wobbled on his feet. How long had he been unconscious? Was Thor still chasing him? Thor better be, because Loki would never let him forget it if he forgot Loki’s body --

Loki paused and cocked his head to one side. Thor thought Loki was dead. If the Allfather hadn’t sent anyone yet, that meant he either wasn’t watching Loki or also thought he was dead.

Loki’s cracked lips stung as they stretched into a grin. Wrapping an enchantment so Heimdall couldn’t see him was as easy as breathing. It took more focus to summon a storm to hide and disfigure the remaining corpses, but Loki had several minutes.

No one was looking for Loki now. No one would see Loki coming.

Walking hurt, breathing hurt, summoning the storm hurt, but none of it was enough to take the smile off Loki’s face. 

They had been wrong. Loki wasn’t  _ too _ clever. Loki was just clever  _ enough _ .

Now, at long last, Loki had a throne to claim.

 

**Author's Note:**

> My take on Loki's mind in action, because I can see him getting stabbed because he thought he was so clever, then waking up and immediately deciding that _of course_ the best thing he could do was steal the throne. Why not?
> 
> For more Loki and fic (and mandatory kittens), check out my [tumblr](http://tirsynni.tumblr.com/). :D


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